Video4Linux: Current Status and Future Work – ELCE 2012

Hans Verkuil, R&D software engineer at Cisco Systems Norway, talks about Video4Linux status, progress, and plans at the embedded Linux Conference in Barcelona, Spain, on November 7, 2012. Abstract: Video4Linux is a fast-changing subsystem where a lot of work is done to support the complex video hardware of embedded systems. This presentation will give an overview of the developments in the past year and the work that is planned for the near future. Hans covers SoC video devices support, core, control, and videobuf2 frameworks, HDTV timings & events API, video connector support, media controllers, codec & flash support, and more… You can also download the slides for this presentation. For further details about development, subscribe to linux-media mailing lists or chat on #v4l IRC channel on freenode. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting […]

Porting Android 4.0 to a Custom Industrial Board Based on TI OMAP 3 – ELCE 2012

Matthias Brugger, embedded engineer at ISEE, describes the steps the company had to follow (referred to as a “war story”) to port Android 4.0 to a custom industrial board at ELCE 2012, Barcelona, on November 5, 2012. Abstract: This talk will explain the lessons learned by giving a step-by-step introduction of porting Android to a custom board which was designed for an industrial environment. This includes an introduction to the Android build environment, first board bring-up and peripheral integration. The talk will cover bootloader integration, power management. It will focus on the peculiarities configuring Ethernet and Wi-Fi in Android. Also button and display integration, as well as integration of third-party accelerator support will be explained. Android devices are getting popular not only in the mobile market but although in the industrial environment. Porting Android to a custom board can be challenging, especially as little information about Android internals are available. […]

Android Cortex A8 Keyboard / Advanced Remote for TV

Remote Solution,  a small technology company based in Hong Kong South Korea, has shown off an Android 4.0 powered keyboard controlling an Android STB at CES 2013. The device is designed to be used as an advanced TV remote control, looks like a small tablet with 8 control button, and can be inserted into a full sized QWERTY keyboard for faster typing. The specifications are as follows: SoC – ARM Cortex-A8 processor @ 720 MHz (I’d guess a TI OMAP3 or Sitara processor at this freq) System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 2GB flash Display – 3.5″ touchscreen display (480 x 320) Connectivity – WiFi and Bluetooth Misc – IR port to be used as a universal remote. The touchscreen allows you to launch apps on your TV, move a cursor by using a virtual touch-pad, use an on-screen keyboard (when the screen is not connected to the keyboard), […]

openSUSE 12.2 for ARM is Now Available for Beagleboard, Pandaboard, Efixa MX and More

The first stable release of openSUSE for ARM has just been announced. openSUSE 12.2 for ARM is officially available for the Beagleboard, Beagleboard xM, Pandaboard, Pandaboard ES, Versatile Express (QEMU) and the rootfs can be mounted with chroot, but “best effort’ ports have been made for Calxeda Highbank server, i.MX53 Loco development board, CuBox computer, Origen Board and Efika MX smart top. Work is also apparently being done on a Raspberry Pi port which should be available for the next release. openSUSE developers explains that almost all of openSUSE builds runs on these platforms (about 5000 packages). Visit “OpenSUSE on your ARM board” for download links and instructions for a specific ARM board. More details are available on the wiki page. openSUSE has limited resources for ARM development, so If you’d like to help with development (e.g. fixing builds), visit ARM distribution howto page to find out how to get […]

Gumstix TurtleCore Expansion Board for iRobot Create

Last month, Gumstix announced the TurtleCore expansion board for iRobot Create Programmable Robot, featuring 3 USB ports, several male-header pins with GPIO access, as well as standoffs and screws to support the TurtleCore in the Create cargo bay.. The TurtleCore is a baseboard for TI OMAP3 and Sitara based Overo COMs or Overo STORM series of COMs that replaces the Command Module on iRobot Create to provide a more flexible and powerful solution. Overo COMs have very good Linux support (OpenEmbedded) with source code, tools and documentation available, including support for the Robot Operating System (GumROS) for high level programming. They released the hardware early so that the community could work on the software, and there have been some good progress as you can see from the video below. You can already download the schematics and PCB layout file, but the software and instructions do not appear to be available […]

Toradex Releases Apalis Computer on Module Architecture Specification

Last month, Toradex released the preliminary specification for Apalis, a Computer on Module (CoM) architecture. Although the Apalis specification has been initially designed with ARM based processors in mind such as the Nvidia Tegra, Freescale i.MX and Texas Instruments OMAP processor families, it aims at being device and chip architecture independent. The Apallis specification defines the following: Interface Specifications: Signal Naming Convention – Rules to name pins (e.g. VCC, PWM1, PWM2, ) which are used for all modules. Signal Definition – Details about the pins named above Physical Pin Definition and Location Mechanical Specifications: Mounting and Fixation Module Size – Standard: 82 x 45mm | Extended: 82 x 56mm Pin Numbering – There is a total of 321 pin numbers (but a few less actually pins) Electrical Specifications: Power Supplies Power Control Back Feed Protection This specifications also defines mounting mechanisms for active cooling (e.g. heat spreaders) in case those […]

List of 39 Low Cost Linux Friendly Boards and Products

Dmitry (omgfire), one of my awesome readers, compiled a great tabular list of Linux friendly boards and products that sells for less than $300 US (usually less than $200). This list includes technical details such as the processor, GPU, memory, NAND flash, connectivity, ports, supported Linux distributions… as well as availability and pricing information. There are currently 39 Linux devices in total. The vast majority are ARM based boards, but he also included 2 x86 products by VIA, but those are relatively pricey ($265 and up). Here’s a summary list with SoCs used, links to blog posts and product pages (if available), as well as price information. Raspberry Pi Model B – Broadcom BCM2835 (ARM11) – Blog post (That’s my first post about the R-Pi last year, and the board is much different now) –  Product page – Price: $35 + shipping Rikomagic MK802 – Allwiner A10 (Cortex A8) –  […]

Syntro 0.5.0 Cross-platform C++ Framework for Distributed Sensor Networks

Pansenti has announced the first release of Syntro (version 0.5.0), a cross-platform framework for creating distributed sensor networks. Syntro is an open source C++ library and a set of applications based on Qt 4.7. The source code is released under the GPL license. Syntro has been developed on the following platforms: Linux Fedora 16 Ubuntu >= 10.10 Mac OS 10.7 Windows 7 Syntro can run on x86 targets as well as ARM based Pandabord, Beagleboard and Beaglebone development boards (Ubuntu only). Syntro is based on the following “SyntroCore” applications: SyntroExec – Start up and management of Syntro apps. SyntroControl – Message switching and multicast distribution. SyntroStore – Multicast stream capture. SyntroCFS – Cloud file storage. SyntroReplay – Multicast stream generation. SyntroLog – Network-wide logging. Some demo applications using one or more webcams and the OpenCV library are also available: SyntroCamera – Capture a stream from a video device (such as […]